AISHAH'S MUSINGS

#LoveWITHAccountability is a new project from Aishah Shahidah Simmons that is funded by Just Beginnings Collaborative and seeks to address what accountability can look like for survivors of child sexual abuse, adult rape and all forms of sexual violence.

Like so many colored girls and folx, my heart is heavy about Ntozaké Shange joining the ancestral realm. Her phenomenal, trailblazing, Black iconic cultural work has been a part of my life for almost, but not quite, as long as I can remember.

I walk with e. nina jay’s poems the way that I’ve walked with the (Audre) Lorde’s prose and poetry. It took me a minute before I watched her on-screen performance of the poems because I knew I had to be ready.

“these beautiful roomsthese beautiful roomsI am opening the doorsTo these chaotic roomsThis house is no tombThis life is not doomedThis black rose can bloomI will make a homeOf this body of rooms”e. nina jay, body of rooms

From the moment and I mean the absolute moment I hit play on my dvd player, e nina jay pulled me into the screen and would not let me leave the room until the last credit rolled up the screen.

For decades upon decades LGBTQIA anti-sexual violence activists have worked TIRELESSLY to stop the vicious homophobic and transphobic conflation of sexual violence with sexual orientation and gender identity.

Rather than focus on ending sexual violence routinely committed against children and adults, especially those who are the most marginalized, attention is focused on why someone is LGBTQIA.

This is one of many reasons why Kevin Spacey's coming out of the celluloid closet responses to being accused of causing harm 30 years ago to a 14-year old boy are despicable and unprincipled. What the HELL does his (FINALLY) living as an out gay man have to do with his attempted sexual misconduct with a minor twelve years his junior? These are separate issues.

I do not want to hear about sexual exploration and I write as a unapologetic Black lesbian/queer woman child sexual abuse and adult rape survivor who also explored her sexuality as a teenager. I want to hear about adult accountability. PERIOD.

LGBTQIA children and teenagers are some of the most vulnerable to being sexually violated by adults.

If you are looking for resources to help you get a grasp of sexual violence outside of the heterosexual cisgender man/boy harming the cisgender woman/girl, here are three of several: sibling survivor/comrade/friend Amita Swadhin'sMirror Memoirs project has collected over 40 (to date) oral her/hxstories/histories from queer and trans child sexual abuse survivors of color. What they are uncovering through this groundbreaking work is mind blowing. Sibling survivor/comrade/friend Ignacio G Rivera'sThe HEAL Project aims to prevent and end child sexual abuse by making visible the hidden tools used to guilt, shame, coerce and inflict violence onto children. Sibling survivor/comrade/friend Jennifer Patterson's edited award-winning anthology Queering Sexual Violence features multi-racial, multi-gender LGBTQIA survivors and activists whose writings are at the intersection of survivor status, race, sexuality, gender identity, mental health and disability.

Let's work to end ALL forms of sexual violence committed against ALL humans.

One of my teacher's Toni Cade Bambara used to always say, "It's the community you want to name you."

Full body bow of gratitude in honor of my very dear The Feminist Wire managing and associate editor sibling/comrade/friends for lifting up my name and labor in concert with others whose work both precedes me and also stands with my own in the anti-rape movementS. #NORape

Too often child sexual abuse survivors, adult rape survivors and survivors of other of forms sexual violence are expected to forgive the harm doers (including the bystanders) without too much, if any accountability for the harm caused.

Seeking accountable forgiveness is important. However, no harm doer should expect it just because they sought it.

It is the survivor who has the right to decide if and when they will accept the request.

Demanding or expecting forgiveness is another form of violence. Once again, the survivor is being asked to perform an action they may not be willing or even able to perform.

Forgiveness comes from within. It may happen in the absence of the harm doer(s) seeking it. It may not happen when the harm doer(s) seek it.

Forgiveness is an important journey and simultaneously, it is a complex process.

#LoveWITHAccountability is a new project that is funded by Just Beginnings Collaborative and seeks to address what accountability can look like for survivors of child sexual abuse, adult rape and all forms of sexual violence.